It’s illegal for kids to play with BB guns in S.F.

Earlier this week, I wrote a blog post asking, Should parents allow their kids to play with BB guns? The story missed an important point: In California, you are allowed to own a BB gun, so long as you don’t exhibit it in public, discharge it recklessly, or carry it onto school ground or other sensitive areas. But in San Francisco it’s illegal to carry or own a BB gun, and SF Weekly has been tracking the issue, which is a little complicated because S.F. Police is enforcing an obsolete anti-BB Gun ordinance. Here’s an excerpt from a November 2009 Weekly story:

Last month we wrote about how the San Francisco Police Department considered possession of a BB gun within city limits to be illegal — even though the District Attorney and Public Defender acknowledged that the city’s anti-BB gun ordinance has been obsolete since 2004. That’s when a state law regarding BB gun possession took effect; interestingly, that ’04 law was passed with the overt intention of doing away with odd, persnickety ordinances like San Francisco’s.

Well, there’s the law and there’s the law. A recent police report described officers from Taraval Station stopping a driver for an alleged road rage incident, then citing him for possessing an air pistol. A sergeant familiar with the case told SF Weekly that the citation was not due to the man brandishing the pistol or employing it during his aggressive driving — but merely for possessing a BB gun, which the police still consider illegal within city limits (you are allowed to possess a real gun, by the way).

The wheels of justice move slowly, it would seem. Unless you’re toting a BB gun.